Question

Senator Joe McCarthy made a name for himself claiming to have evidence of communists operating in the United States government. As time went on, it became clear that many of the allegations had no merit.

What, ultimately, lead to McCarthy’s downfall?

Answer 1

The Army-McCarthy hearings became the most important reason of his political downfall and he was censured.He was acquitted of misconduct in Shine case.

Even after his cencuring,Senator McCarthy continued with his anti communist oratory,usually speaking to an empty Senate chamber.

Answer 2

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy grew in the eyes of the public as he insisted that the reason for the failure of the United States to institute effective and efficient foreign policies was the presence of communists in the leading ranks of the government. Elected in 1946 to the U.S Senate, he began a whole issue against communists and issued a speech on Lincoln Day where he insisted on the infiltration of the U.S government by the communists. In fact, this senator from the state of Wisconsin presented a supposed list of communist spies that he said were still working within the State Department. This led to an investigation that soon found out that this idea was not true and declared this as a hoax. However, this statement was pushed forth once again when the Korean War broke out and Alger Hiss was convicted. This led to McCarthy being elected to a senate subcomittee that undertook further investigations and most of his collaborators resigned when they saw the extent to which the senator would go to prove the presence of communists in the government. In the end, McCarthy picked a fight with the U.S Army because he accused the Army of lax security in high-level establishments and after a hearing it was proven the level of cruelty of the senator. His public career ended.